NowNS: Minorities an underutilized workforce source

Zenith award advisory board member John Mountain with initiative alumnae Charlene Theodore, who accepted the national accolade on behalf of Dalhousie University's Schulich School of Law at a ceremony in Toronto.

Nova Scotia’s economy, warns the 2014 Ivany Report, faces a shortfall of skilled workers and needs to “improve” the number of people in employment — from 63.4 per cent to at least the national average of 66.4 per cent, according to 2006 Census data.

The report recommends that the province’s government, employers, community organizations and residents collectively take a three-pronged approach to increasing Nova Scotia’s labour force participation rate.

The province must, advises Ivany, align its post-secondary education sector with the needs of its workforce (see this Now! Nova Scotia section Sept. 20); attract and retain people from the rest of Canada and the world (Sept. 27) and also get better at “supporting the successful transition of marginalized and disadvantaged populations into the labour force.”

Minority communities in particular, points out the report, account for disproportionate shares of unemployed or underemployed Nova Scotians. Ivany cites 2006 Census data showing Nova Scotia’s employment rate for First Nations and African Nova Scotians at 53 per cent and 62 per cent respectively — against 68 per cent for Canada’s total working age population.

In human capital management terms, this underutilization narrows unnecessarily the province’s pool of high-performing talent — no help to employers eager to tap new demographic groups in their increasingly fierce fight for hard-to-find hires.

In addition, the report notes that the birth rate for these communities is higher than in the general population, meaning they “represent a (relatively more) important potential source of young new entrants to the labour force.”

Essentially, Ivany advises, Nova Scotia must make more — much more — of its existing human resources.

Seeing success at Schulich

Dalhousie’s Schulich School of Law. (STAFF)

Helping to make that happen is the Indigenous Blacks and Mi'kmaq Initiative, run out of the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University, in Halifax.

The initiative has won multiple national awards for its efforts to increase representation of Indigenous Blacks and Mi’kmaq in the legal profession in order to reduce discrimination.

Established in 1989, the initiative aims to ensure that Mi’kmaq and African Nova Scotian students, along with other aboriginal and black students, are represented at the school, thus improving access to legal education and representation in the legal profession.

School spokeswoman Lindsay Loomer told the Chronicle Herald that so far the initiative has produced 179 graduates who had gone on to work in a wide array of public, private and non-profit sector jobs.

Earlier this year, director Michelle Williams called the initiative’s alumni “catalysts for change within the profession.”

Jean Cumming is editor-in-chief at established national legal publisher Lexpert, which this summer recognized the initiative with one of its annual national Zenith awards, designed to highlight excellence within Canada’s legal profession.

Speaking at the Toronto award ceremony, Cumming described the initiative as a “model for access to legal education and the legal profession.”

Camille Cameron, the school’s dean, added at the time that the initiative was a “pioneering response to the pressing need for more diversity in the profession,” calling its alumni role models for young indigenous black and aboriginal people who might otherwise have regarded a legal education as out of reach.

In 2010, the Canadian Bar Association also recognized the initiative — in that case for “outstanding achievements in promoting equality in the legal community in Canada.” It was the first time that award went to an organization rather than a person.

Alumnus Charlene Theodore, now legal counsel at the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, accepted the award on behalf of the school. She told the audience, “This award shows the initiative continues to be a transformative force in the legal landscape of this country ... Investing in diversity and inclusion has benefits we are only just beginning to measure.”

Lexpert’s website says the Zenith awards are open to law firms, corporate legal and government departments, academia, the judiciary and alternative careers relating to law.

Loomer said the initiative is comprised of outreach and recruitment within those communities; financial and other support for those students; developing scholarships related to aboriginal law and African Canadian legal perspectives; and promoting the hiring and retention of aboriginal and African Nova Scotians.

The initiative’s website advises, “Students who enter the school (via) the initiative join the regular first (year law) class, write the same exams, complete the same work and earn the same Juris Doctor degree as do all other school students.”